Kyle Schwarber is ‘able to produce’ in his start at first base for the Phillies

CLEARWATER, Fla. — It had been three years since Kyle Schwarber played a competitive inning at first base.

But that’s where Schwarber started the Phillies’ 7-7 tie with the Yankees on Thursday. It was his first time at the position since the 2021 postseason with the Red Sox.

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Schwarber had arrived in Boston at the trade deadline that season and spent the first two weeks with his new team on the injured list. With the three outfield spots and designated hitter already spoken for, the Red Sox had him try out first base once he returned.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing. In Game 3 of the American League Division Series, Schwarber misfired on an underhanded toss to pitcher Nathan Eovaldi after fielding a grounder. An inning later, he earned an ovation at Fenway Park after successfully executing the same play.

Zack Wheeler, starting for the Phillies on Thursday, kidded with Schwarber before he took the field.

“I just told him I wasn’t getting over there today,” Wheeler said. “So he had it all.”

Schwarber didn’t end up having to worry about that. No balls were hit his way for the five innings he spent in the field, although he made putouts on all three throws from second.

“His routes to first base were good,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.

It was Thomson’s idea for Schwarber to get reps at first base this spring in order to give the Phillies some flexibility with the designated hitter spot. To stay sharp, Schwarber will also see time in left field in Grapefruit League games. But developing an ability to play first base as well gives the team more options if Thompson wants to give Bryce Harper a break on occasion.

“Even though I DH mostly for this team, there’s part of me that always wants to be on the field,” Schwarber said. “You do kind of miss the aspect of the game sometimes. But obviously my goal here, for this team, is I want to be able to produce anything I can for these guys. Like I said, if I can get guys off their feet, I want to get guys off their feet.”

Before his brief stint at the position with Boston — 19 games between the regular season and postseason — Schwarber had not played first base since high school. He said he even had to borrow a first baseman’s mitt from a Red Sox teammate.

Schwarber has his own glove now. He also has been regularly working this spring with Phillies infield coach Bobby Dickerson to prepare.

One of Dickerson’s drills involves Schwarber wearing a softball mask and trying to “catch” a tossed ball with his face.

“People look at it, probably laugh at it,” Schwarber said. “But it’s also [a] pretty interesting drill, being able to get your face used to the ball, getting it behind the baseball. I’ve got a whole new respect for Bobby; I never worked with Bobby before. Being able to work with him since this spring, I can see why he’s got such a really good reputation.”

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The biggest challenge has been learning the footwork, Schwarber said. But it helps that he’s able to test-drive the position in a bit of a lower-stakes environment than the ALDS.

“It’s just different when you can be in spring training settings, and you go out and you have a spring training game,” Schwarber said. “You can screw up all you want, right? It doesn’t matter. It’s more about the learning aspect, versus if you screw up late — we were making that postseason push in Boston — it means way more than spring training does.”